Best Big Cities for Walking-See how pedestrian friendly your area is

[underpants]

www.msn.com

[Sheets of Easter]

1. I'm surprised to see San Fran at number one.

In terms of geography, San Francisco's kind of hilly. Pretty, yes, with a number of parks and attractions, but still it's got a lot of hills.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. The WalkScore system doesn't consider hills in the rating.

The SF Chronicle story mentions this, probably because it's the first thing that most of us who lived here wondered too. It is a very walkable city, with some neighborhoods better than others in terms of hilly routes. I do think that once topography is figured into the measure San Francisco would drop down the list quite a few spots.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/17/MN3J11Q3N8.DTL


on edit: the MSN photo is too funny ---NO ONE can get away with walking on the cables of the Bay Bridge.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

17. It surprised this San Franciscan as well!

:rofl:

First thing I did was think about the very BIG hill I would have to climb to get to my house were I the walking kind of person. I did when I was younger -- barely (it gave me rock hard thighs) -- but now it is just too big a climb for me. Considering the number of neighborhoods located on our many hills, I really can't imagine what they were thinking about when making that choice!

[MrCoffee]

2. Seattle is very walkable

We pretty much exclusively walk on the weekends. We can make it to 3 parks, the library, 2 big shopping streets, 3 grocery stores (one of which is also a local "big box" kind of place), coffee, restaurants, a movie theater, bookstores, 3 video rental places...all within really easy walking distance. It's part of why we live where we do, location location location.

[Sanity Claws]

5. Except if you live north of 85th street

where there are no sidewalks.
I lived in the Lake City area for one year and almost got hit by cars twice while I was running along the side of the road, something I would never have done had there been a sidewalk.

[MrCoffee]

8. Why'd you live way out in the boonies?

North of 85th? Isn't that Canada or something?

[Sanity Claws]

10. I was new in town and needed an apt. that allowed cats.

So many apt. buildings I checked out would not allow cats or demanded like $200 (lot of money 20 years ago) as a pet fee.
But really, Lake City is not that far out. In fact, all of Seattle is kind of compact.

BTW, I later bought a home in Ballard, a much more walking-friendly neighborhood.

[taterguy]

3. Semi-useful but flawed

According to that site the only bar within walking distance of my house is a titty bar.

The only bookstore is a Christian bookstore.

I don't walk to either one of those places so the info isn't too helpful.

[underpants]

6. What if they were large Christian boobies?

You wouldn't cross the street for that???

[jobycom]

12. My home's walkability score is 11, but they include an "bookstore" that's online only

a "restaurant" that is in a house and clearly not open to the public, and a "school" that seems to be some private mail-order supply company.

So, I'm somewhere below an 11. In July and August, that should be a negative number.

[jobycom]

7. Not a lot of southern cities there, eh?

Wonder why...

[MrCoffee]

9. Have you ever tried walking around Houston in August?

[jobycom]

11. Yes.

Houston, Austin, New Orleans, Gulfport.

What's the problem? Walk at midnight.

[KamaAina]

14. The French Quarter would score 98

thus, a "walker's paradise", ahead of the Lower East Side, Boston's Back Bay, SF's Mission, etc., etc.

The study only included the 40 largest cities, so NOLA wasn't included.

[hobbit709]

13. Says my neighborhood has a score of 52

But some of their distances are wrong. I think they figure straight line distances in some of it. I know for a fact that the convenience store listed is more than 0.27 of a mile by street. Or the 0.66 to a movie theater-It's about double that by street because in my neighborhood, you can't get there or anywhere in a straight line.

[Chan790]

15. I have a walkscore of 0.

I live on the edge of a wildlife preserve...I'm not surprised.

[Radical Activist]

16. Do you have a direct link? I don't see the story on the front page.

[Shakespeare]

18. Cool. My neighborhood (Hollywood) gets a walkability score of 92.

And my previous home, DC, comes in at 89.